


The Inbetween

by Apostat3



Series: The Inbetween Series [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Original Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-07 22:16:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18882334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Apostat3/pseuds/Apostat3
Summary: The first in a series of pieces about a mage named Jensen trying to kill a lich. You can imagine that, given it's a series, it doesn't go so well.





	The Inbetween

Jensen's fingers grew chilled as a long and very sharp icicle formed in his palm and then catapulted from his hand into the shoulder of a charging bandit. The bandit fell, the spear of ice easily piercing through the light hide armour she was wearing. She staggered back to her feet, and Jensen finished her with a second, faster blast with a smaller icicle. This time, it hit her square in the face and the bandit fell, dead before she hit the ground.

Jensen then spun quickly, anticipating the attack from a second bandit who was nocking an arrow far behind him. No normal senses could have picked it up, but Jensen's magical prowess gave him many useful abilities on the battlefield. His earthen brown robe fluttered around his knees with the rotation, though his short black hair was relatively unaffected by the wind. His bag was secured tightly enough to his side that the spin only caused a little movement, and his dagger jingled on the back of his belt.

Jensen closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then held his hands out in front of him as though trying to pry something apart. The two gems mounted in his left gauntlet — one on the palm and another on the top of his wrist — began to glow purple as he channelled magic into them. He then wrenched his hands apart and a great violet portal grew outwards as he pulled apart the very walls of the world.

He lunged through it, and emerged from another such portal that had formed from thin air behind the bandit. In a moment, his dagger was drawn from the back of his hip and he plunged it into the bandit's neck, inciting a muted gurgle of blood and a muscular spasm, before he flopped lifelessly off the dagger. Jensen grinned to himself as he saw another bandit, this time the leader, charging him with a rather ominous looking hammer.

Jensen peeked over the edge of the tower he had warped onto. It was a long way down, and it made him feel weak in the knees. Despite this fear, he took a gulp, leaned back on his leg and threw himself off. As he flew, he tore the air in front of him asunder and vanished through a portal. After a split second, he emerged from another portal, the purple glow flashing and pulsing as he was propelled back to reality, boots slamming into the back of the chief.

He noticed the leader wore a well adorned set of plate mail, carved with beautiful patterns and, more importantly, made of metal. Jensen landed nimbly and, dropping his dagger to the ground to free his hands, summoned a great torrent of lightning in his hands, which he threw with exceptional force at the chief. Electricity coursed through the steel, and the chief was quickly cooked by his own armour. The smell of burning flesh caught the wind, and Jensen, snatching back up his weapon, quickly jumped through another rift, teleporting down to ground level. He stretched off his muscles, offered the castle he had just cleared one final glance, then opened a portal and stepped through.

* * *

"Really? A whole fort? And you didn’t consider to bring me?" Maria rested her hands on her hips and she looked disapprovingly at Jensen. She may have been the more sensible and tactical of the two, but she still enjoyed a good fight.  
_Beautiful and fun,_ Jensen thought to himself. Maria had purchased some new armour since the last time he'd seen her, and she was now outfitted with tight-fitting leather armour, stained black by an enchantment of shadow placed upon them. Very practical for someone whose fighting style relied on stealth and dexterity. A silver crest with a carved eagle was attached the centre of the armour's breastplate, depicting the form of the Huntress, the goddess Maria followed. An obsidian bow was hooked to her back—a gift from Jensen that he had looted from a pirate a number of years prior. Her leather gauntlets were fingerless, and both were adorned with the same magic gems on top of the wrist that Jensen's had, except that he had enchanted them to make her grip stronger and her fingers more nimble; two very useful skills for a bowman like her.  
    "Yes, a whole fort. And I didn't ask you because every square foot in that place was covered with traps, and you would simply have become stuck," Jensen said, not even believing that excuse himself. The real reason he hadn't asked was because he wanted all the coin from the bounty.  
    "Oh, of course. That's what you say every time, Jen," Maria said accusingly, but her face betrayed her, showing that she wasn't really quite that angry. Jensen never really understood why she found him so tolerable. Most other people tried to kill him on sight, and here she was, having a chat. "My bet is just that you wanted all the glory and coin, and poor old Maria just gets left behind." Maria then took an expression of mock upset, with an amused smile that was not so well concealed.  
    "Or perhaps I just care about my only friend and do not want her getting killed," Jensen said softly, and Maria looked back up, smiling gently. "Although, now you mention it, there is something you could assist me with." Jensen began to root through the small bag he carried on a strap around his waist.  
    "Oh? And what's that?" Maria leaned forward curiously as Jensen pulled a small roll of paper from his pack. He handed it to her and she swiftly unrolled it. "This is… concerning. So, this ancient mage used to be a magister? Probably wants his power back, then?"  
    "Indeed; and he's been terrorising local villages, claiming his and his master's wrath will ravage their lands." Maria handed back the scroll and Jensen quickly rolled it again and tucked it back into his pack. "So, want to accompany me?" Jensen asked, glancing up at Maria from the top of his eyes as he sealed his bag again.  
    "Of course." Maria smiled excitedly and rested her hands back on her hips, leaning back on one leg with that familiar look of confidence in her eyes.

It almost made Jensen think they could win.

* * *

It looked more like a crypt than a castle, really. Its great archways of stone had fallen into disrepair, going from grand decorations to dreary reminders of a past age. The stone had gone from bright grey to a dark shade, tinted with lines of green moss. A sheer staircase led up the path, and at its summit was an ominous sight. The castle's front was built into the mountain, and its architecture consisted of sharp shapes, leaving large jutting shapes protruding from its walls. In the middle stood a rotting wood door, lined with iron. The place looked like it once was a bastion of dread, and was almost worse in its state of disrepair. It was clear no one had ventured here in a long time.

    "Well, doesn't this place look pleasant?" Jensen asked rhetorically, gazing up at the structure from the bottom of the path.  
    "Stairs look awfully steep.." Maria remarked. It was obvious what she wanted, so Jensen summoned up his power and clawed at the air, pulling it open with a sharp purple flash.  
    "After you." He grinned, gesturing towards the portal. With a grand flourish, Maria stepped through the portal, only to reappear a moment later at the top of the staircase. Jensen followed after, and the portal closed almost immediately after he had stepped out. It wasn't wise to leave them open any longer than was needed, lest things become accidentally lost in the Between.The more threats there were there, the less safe it would make it each time Jensen made a jump.  
    "Ready to go?" Maria's voice brought Jensen back from whatever he had been caught up thinking about.  
    "Always. Let's go." Jensen pulled his dagger, which was really just the enchanted shard of a broken blade, from his belt and made his way towards the door, with Maria in tow.

* * *

The door had looked heavy, but in reality they were even heavier. The door creaked open slowly, with both Jensen and Maria pushing against it with all the strength they could muster. Once it had opened enough for them to slip through, they did so swiftly. The door crashed closed behind them with a heavy thud. It was pitch black inside, but Maria scanned around and, finding a jut from the wall, tugged a torch from a sconce by the door and, with a gentle movement, Jensen cast a small plume of flame to set it alight. The light gave their surroundings a red hue, which only accentuated the smatterings of blood spread about the floor. It made Jensen's hairs stand on end, and he gripped his dagger tighter. From what the torchlight revealed, they now stood in a great, empty chamber. Giant pillars of stone held up its ornate ceiling, decorated with enough gargoyles to decorate several vampires’ castles. Carving stretched over the roof and down the pillars, depicting devastation dealt by a great dragon. Moss covered almost every surface, and mushrooms had sprouted from in between the brickwork floor. Everything about the place screamed abandoned, and there was no evidence to show anyone was active here.

Not even an undead mage would want to live here, Jensen thought to himself.  
    "We should keep moving. I don't like this, not one bit." Maria looked about as shaken by all this as Jensen was, and it made him glad to know he wasn't the only one who found this unnerving. Still, they ventured further, heading towards what they thought was the outline of a door at the other side of the chamber. When they reached it, they both noticed a strange blue glow coming for under the door. What Maria didn't noticed was the great magical power that pulsed pure energy from the other side of the door. Jensen, on the other hand, could sense its power. He could feel the magnitude of whatever was going on past the door, and it made him cautious.  
    "Hold on. Let me go first." His voice was quiet, and Maria replied by simply nodding to him. Slowly, motivated to be wary by fear, he pushed the door open gently. The door was far lighter, and pushed open silently and with ease. The blue spilled into the room, and Jensen peeked around the door to survey the room. The blue light, it turned out, came from long lines of wall torches that ran down a short corridor then bent around the corners and continued their run around a circular chamber. There wasn't much in the chamber, tables covered with urns and the tools of an embalmer lined the walls, and linen, along with other such materials sat on wall mounted shelves placed above. The centrepiece of the room was an empty throne, the silk on it rotting away from the hard metal frame. A few metres in front was a metal rectangle that at first glance might resemble a table, but was actually a coffin. As Jensen and Maria advanced into the room, on full alert, they could see elaborate carvings in the sides and lid of the coffin. They portrayed the same dragon as earlier, but this time there was someone else taking centre stage. The carvings showed a man, wearing a flowing robe and jeweled crown, who wielded a large staff. It appeared to fire great bolts of lighting from its tip, which was adorned with the head of a dragon. Jensen could feel a power emanating  from inside the coffin, and he felt strangely drawn to it. He walked over to it and placed his hand on it, running his hand along the designs. A red aura followed wherever his fingers touched, until it ran inside the carvings like a molten metal runs inside a cast. The torches along the wall turned a blood red, and their light seemed so much fainter. Jensen stepped back from the coffin and to move back to the door when a rotten fist punched through the metal lid on the coffin.  
  
    The carvings had made the figure look grand, with flawless and handsome features along with the perfect build. It was likely that had once been true, but the creature that climbed from the coffin was anything but handsome. It had a slim frame, for all the muscles and flesh had long since rotted away. What skin was left clinging to the bone had turned grey and textureless, and it seemed to melt away in the light as though its flesh was candlewax, dripping from the skeletal wick. Only shreds of its robe remained, and it was no more now than a colourless piece of cloth draped around its shoulders, with rare metals and gems dangling on breaking threads. It seemed to not have legs. Instead it floated around with great stability. The only thing to come out of the coffin that seemed not to have aged was the creature's staff, which it clutched in its remaining bony hand. The gold on the staff still shone as brightly as the day it was first polished, likely preserved by some time forgotten enchantment. It turned its withered face to Maria and Jensen and, with seemingly inhuman speed, raised its staff and sent a streak of lightning cascading across the room. Jensen barely had time to roll out of the way as it struck the bricks behind him, dislodging them and leaving a hole in the wall. An arrow whizzed past his face as Maria fired upon the creature, knocking arrows faster than she ever had before. Jensen summoned a tiny blizzard in the palm of his hand and created a razor sharp icicle in the middle of it, before hurling it the creature's way. It flew clean through its shoulder, tearing a hole through the skin. The creature recoiled, but showed no sign of being harmed by the blow as it sent two more bolts of lighting from the tip of its staff.

This time it aimed at Maria, but she was an agile warrior and quickly dodged aside. The creature's focus on Maria gave Jensen a moment to himself, and he quickly pulled his dagger up to his face, whispered an incantation and watched as the broken blade grew to the size of a normal longsword, all the broken parts being replaced by solid purple energy, a sort of hard light. It cast a purple glow, rivaling the dark red of the surrounding torches. Jensen threw a quick fireball at the creature to distract it, then lunged forward, his sword cleaving through rotten flesh. He hit bone and sent shards of its ribs flying, but the creature seemed unphased as it swung around with its staff in an attempt to bat Jensen away. Arrows still flew across the room, but now they were aimed with great precision to strike weaknesses, such as its bones. Jensen swung again at the creature, but it used its staff to parry the blow and force Jensen on his back foot. It counter attacked, throwing the butt of its staff at Jensen's legs. Jensen anticipated the blow and sank to one knee, catching the staff in one gauntleted hand and swinging his spirit blade up with the other, cracking the creature's exposed pelvis. It roared and reached down. Jensen tried to dodge but the creature caught him in a surprisingly strong skeletal hand and lifted Jensen up. It pressed its staff to his chest and began to charge up electrical energy, it played across Jensen's skin, a tickling sensation. He knew it was all over for him when, just then, as the bolt was about to be fire, a second lighting bolt smashed into the creature's face, stunning it. It let go of Jensen and he fell to what he expected to be the ground. Instead, however, he found himself falling through a portal. 

* * *

Jensen thudded onto the tarmac with a thud. He was left breathless, and his stomach still tingled from his close encounter. He sat up and looked around. Surrounding him on either side were houses made of bricks, but they were strange looking. Dishes and cylinders dotted the sides of them, and peculiar lights that were constantly changing colour flickered within. Looking at where he sat, Jensen found himself on a road like no other he had seen. It was smooth, smoother than any craftsman could achieve, and it had white and yellow lines running up the middle and sides of it respectively. Suddenly he saw a carriage moving faster than any other he had ever seen, and he clawed at the air to open a portal so he could move from its path. However, he found that his magic only sparked for a moment then died entirely, and his only saviour was his heightened reaction times, still helpfully bolstered by his magic. He rolled away onto a smaller footpath made of large tiles. He stood up and looked about himself. The place was remarkably empty. No one wandered the streets of this place. 

    "What is this?" Jensen muttered under his breath.


End file.
